New Mystery novels for August

Readers of mystery novels will be delighted with this month’s selection from our recently received new items, as every novel is set in a different country. These are France, Italy, Holland, Norway, Iran, Iceland, England, Kenya, Germany and Singapore. Not only does this provide some brilliant armchair travel to exotic places, but has some popular characters unravelling the mysteries and solving the crimes.

Murder in Saint-Germain / Cara Black.
“Paris, July 1999: Private investigator Aimée Leduc is walking through Saint-Germain when she is accosted by Suzanne Lesage, a Brigade Criminelle agent on an elite counterterrorism squad. Suzanne has just returned from the former Yugoslavia, where she was hunting down dangerous war criminals for the Hague. Back in Paris, Suzanne is convinced she’s being stalked by a ghost, a Serbian warlord her team took down. She’s suffering from PTSD and her boss thinks she’s imagining things. She begs Aimée to investigate, is it possible Mirko Vladić could be alive and in Paris with a blood vendetta? Aimée is already working on a huge case; plus, she’s got an eight-month-old baby to take care of. But she can’t say no to Suzanne, whom she owes a big favor.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The mountain / Luca D’Andrea.
“Jeremiah Salinger blames himself. The crash was his fault. He was the only survivor. Now only his daughter Clara can put a smile on his face. The depression and the nightmares are closing in. But when he takes Clara to the Bletterbach, a canyon in the Dolomites rich in fossil remains, he overhears by chance a conversation that gives his life renewed focus. In 1985 three students were murdered there, their bodies savaged, limbs severed and strewn by a killer who was never found. Salinger, a New Yorker, is far from home, and these Italian mountains, where his wife was born, harbour a close-knit, tight-lipped community whose mistrust of outsiders can turn ugly. All the same, solving this mystery might be the only thing that can keep him sane.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Sleep baby sleep / David Hewson.
“Annie Schrijver is just twenty-two-years-old. She works in the picturesque Albert Cuyp flower market where her father has a stall. Brimming with personality, she’s always been popular with the customers. But then she goes missing, only to be found barely alive, tied to a stone angel in a graveyard, surrounded by a ring of fire. Her body contains traces of a drug which connect the police to a previous case: the Sleeping Beauty murders. But Annie seems to have been the lucky one, as a body is found nearby, freshly tattooed with three words: Sleep Baby Sleep.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

When It Grows Dark / Jorn Lier Horst ; translated by Anne Bruce.
“Stavern 1983: Christmas is approaching, snow is falling heavily, and a young ambitious policeman named William Wisting has just become the father of twins. After a brutal robbery he is edged off the investigation by more experienced officers, but soon he is on another case that is not only unsolved but has not even been recognised as murder. Forgotten in a dilapidated barn stands a bullet riddled old car, and it looks as if the driver did not get out alive. This case will shape William Wisting as a policeman and give him insight that he will carry with him for the rest of his professional career: generations form an unbroken chain.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Among the ruins / Ausma Zehanat Khan.
“On leave from Canada’s Community Policing department, Esa Khattak is traveling in Iran, reconnecting with his cultural heritage and seeking peace in the country’s beautiful mosques and gardens. But Khattak’s supposed break from work is cut short when he’s approached by a Canadian government agent in Iran, asking him to look into the death of renowned Canadian-Iranian filmmaker Zahra Sobhani. Zahra was murdered at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where she’d been seeking the release of a well-known political prisoner. Khattak quickly finds himself embroiled in Iran’s tumultuous politics and under surveillance by the regime, but when the trail leads back to Zahra’s family in Canada, Khattak calls on his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, for help.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Rupture / Ragnar Jónasson ; translated by Quentin Bates.
“1955. Two young couples move to the uninhabited, isolated fjord of Hedinsfjordur. Their stay ends abruptly when one of the women meets her death in mysterious circumstances, the case in never solved. Fifty years later, an old photograph comes to light, and it becomes clear that the couple may not have been alone on the fjord after all.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

Sleeping in the ground / Peter Robinson.
“A shocking mass murder occurs at a wedding in a small Dales church and a huge manhunt follows. Eventually, the shooter is run to ground and things take their inevitable course. But Banks is plagued with doubts as to exactly what happened outside the church that day, and why. Struggling with the death of his first serious girlfriend and the return of profiler Jenny Fuller into his life, Banks feels the need to dig deeper into the murders, and as he does so, he uncovers forensic and psychological puzzles that lead him to the past secrets that might just provide the answers he is looking for. When the surprising truth becomes clear, it is almost too late.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

A book of scars / William Shaw.
“1969. Five years ago, teenager Alexandra Tozer was murdered on her family farm. Her sister Helen Tozer will never forget. Returning home after quitting the Met Police, she brings with her the recovering Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen, who slowly becomes possessed by the unsolved case. He discovers the Tozers were never told the whole truth. Alexandra was tortured for twenty-four hours before she died. But when he tracks down the original investigating sergeant, the man goes missing. And so does Helen. Suspicion falls on her. But Breen is on a trail that goes far beyond the death of a schoolgirl. For the two men connected to this case met in Kenya, during the Mau Mau uprising; and the history that Britain has turned its face from is now returning to haunt it. So when another innocent woman is abducted, Breen knows he has just twenty-four hours to save her.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)

The Templars’ last secret / Martin Walker.
“When a woman’s body is found at the foot of a cliff near St. Denis,Chief of Police, Bruno suspects a connection to the great ruin that stands on the cliff above: the Chateau de Commarque, a long-ago Knights Templar stronghold which, along with the labyrinth of prehistoric caves beneath it, continues to draw the interest of scholars. Bruno learns that the dead woman was an archaeologist searching for a religious artifact of incredible importance, the discovery of which could have dramatic repercussions throughout the Middle East, not to mention in St. Denis. The woman’s tie to Islamic terrorists only heightens the pressure on Bruno to unravel the centuries-old mystery.” (Adapted from Syndetics summary)